The classroom can be hell for Vinny Napolitano.

As a conservative student on Syracuse University’s campus, he’s frequently born the brunt of insults for defending his views. He finds himself without allies in class discussions, fending off criticism from all directions – even from the front of the room.

When another student told him he should go fight and die in Iraq because he supported the war, Napolitano said his professor stood idly by and allowed the attack to continue.

Napolitano, a junior political science, American history and political philosophy major, is one of many, student and faculty alike, to voice their concerns about the problem of a liberal bias among faculty members at SU.

‘It’s very, very hostile at times,’ he said.

Recent studies on the political views of university faculty members across the country showed that the majority tend to identify themselves as liberal rather than conservative. The effect of their political leanings however, is inconclusive.

For example, a 2006 study by John F. Zipp and Rudy Fenwick titled ‘Is the Academy a Liberal Hegemony?’ found that while university faculty are generally liberal, it is unclear just how pervasive that influence is in the classroom.

It is no different at SU, as a broad range of faculty members from different disciplines and schools all agreed that most of the professors here would generally identify themselves as liberal. How that relates in a classroom setting is murky at best, differing by college.

Discussions with many on campus revealed that while schools, such as the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Martin J. Whitman School of Management appear to receive few complaints about bias in the classroom; others, such as the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Policy and the College of Arts and Sciences have struggled with these issues.

Robert McClure, a professor of political science and public affairs and former dean at Maxwell, said it is not necessarily a problem that the general nature of the social sciences tends to draw liberal-minded people into the profession.

‘Most of my colleagues work, as I do, very hard to try to be as fair-minded about alternative points of view as we can,’ McClure, said. ‘And even if we don’t, even if they’re proselytizing in classrooms, evidence shows that students are resistant to it. They know when someone is being a liberal loudmouth or a conservative curmudgeon and it is all discounted.’

McClure, a conservative Democrat, said the problem lies more with a lack of diversity of ideas. Students at a major institution like SU have a right to hear from all sides of the spectrum and then have the opportunity to make their own judgments on the issues, he said.

‘A rich, robust university would reflect thoughtfully the attitudes and distribution of the population as a whole,’ McClure said, lamenting that conservative professor candidates are occasionally unfairly passed over in the hiring process.

Later, he commented, ‘Would you want to send your student to a music school where there were only trumpet players? What about the trombones? What about the French horns?’

Napolitano echoed these sentiments when asked about problems in the classroom.

‘We want Cantor to live up to her promise of diversity, which is respect for what everyone feels and believes, not just what she believes diversity is,’ Napolitano said.

To some, like Napolitano or senior aerospace engineering major Dan Hetzel, professors in Maxwell and Arts and Sciences often cross the line between simply helping facilitate class discussion and allowing their views to dominate discussion.

A writing instructor once told Hetzel’s class that everyone should be for government-paid health care, Hetzel said. In another class, he was forced to watch ‘Roger and Me,’ an anti-big business documentary made by polemic liberal filmmaker Michael Moore, while no conservative or pro-corporate movie was shown as a form of counter-argument.

Senior Paul Troisi, the chairman of SU’s College Republicans, noted how many professors vehemently oppose the war in Iraq and neglect to listen to those on the other side of the issue.

Professors have even gone as far as advising students on how they should vote, according to Napolitano.

During the 2006 election period, ‘one of my professors told the class, ‘you all have to get out and vote for the Democrats unless you want to go down in the flames of war’ or something like that,’ Napolitano said.

Comparatively, Hetzel said that his political conversations with professors in the School of Engineering were often far more civil and balanced, while Napolitano mentioned that he felt professors in Newhouse and Whitman were less biased.

It adds up to an often harsh environment for conservative students in Arts and Sciences and Maxwell classes, Napolitano said.

‘What else could it be but hostile when the professor says you have dumb, stupid, asshole views?’ said Laurence Thomas, a professor of philosophy and political science who teaches in both the Maxwell School and the College of Arts and Sciences.

Thomas, who said he does not reveal his political views to his students, agreed that there is a liberal bias in both of his home colleges and that it is a problem. If students are aware of how a professor stands on an issue, it hampers the learning process and allows the class to lose objectivity, Thomas said.

‘I think there’s no way better for a student to wrestle with an issue than to not know where a professor stands on it,’ he said.

Otherwise, Thomas said, students are much more likely to simply try and appease a professor rather than engage in actual discourse about the subject.

Not all conservatives believe there is political prejudice in Maxwell and Arts and Sciences, however. Peter Burke, a sophomore political science major, didn’t have any horror stories similar to those of Napolitano or Hetzel.

‘I think the teachers here do a pretty good job of concealing their political view points,’ he said.

Other schools on campus, such as Newhouse and Whitman, have had fewer struggles with bias, faculty members there said.

As associate provost of academic programs at SU and a professor of law and public policy at Whitman, Sandra Hurd hasn’t heard grumblings from students about their professors’ politics and emphasized that it was important for professors to not sway to far one way or the other on issues in order to avoid accusations of bias.

Published on February 1, 2007 at 12:00 pm